THE TENCH. 



Although tench live in muddy ponds, they 

 are very handsome fish, their colour being perhaps 

 dark or golden olive, with dark, bluish-black fins, 

 the pectoral fins being very large for the size of 

 the fish. Tench thrive in the very muddiest ponds, 

 seem perfectly happy in the thickest weeds and 

 scum, and will live where there is sometimes 

 hardly any water. Almost every angler can 

 relate a story of the wonderful vitality of . . 

 tench, which seem able to do without 

 water for a long while. I came across a striking 

 example of this quite recently. Fishing in private 

 water for carp in the daytime, after trying paste 

 for some hours without a nibble of any sort, I 

 put on a brandling in desperation, taking my 

 chance of hooking an eel. After the bait had 

 rested quietly for a while, the line was stirred 

 with a gentle draw, then it moved slowly out. I 

 knew this was not an eel, from the way it was 

 taken ; there was no jerk in the bite, but it was 

 almost exactly like the sucking of a carp, and I 

 fondly hoped I was soon to tackle a great fish, for 

 carp up to sixteen pounds in weight had been 

 taken from that water. The line ran out smoothly 



